


ficlet collection

by leftishark



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Shiro (Voltron) Has a Loving Family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-17
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:13:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23189056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leftishark/pseuds/leftishark
Summary: ficlet(s?) from twitter1. lemon tree au2. lab window au3. apartment au4. shiro baking au5. caught in the rain au6. snail suit au
Relationships: Keith/Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 38
Kudos: 80





	1. the lemon tree

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lightly edited from [original thread](https://twitter.com/leftishark_/status/1238647458659323904?s=20)

The rain breaks after weeks of drizzly gray, so Keith takes Kosmo on an extra long walk to stretch their legs. They pass by a Hot Man tending to his lemon tree.

“Your dog looks happy,” the man says, smiling at the two of them.

“So do your lemons.”

Keith leaves with a bag full of them at Shiro’s insistence. 

He walks Kosmo around Shiro’s neighborhood several times that week, because the exercise is good for both of them, but he doesn’t see Shiro again until the next weekend. This time, Shiro has a bag ready for him. 

“There’s more than my parents can pawn off on their friends,” Shiro says, explaining that it’s their tree and house that he’s helping to maintain, “and I don’t have much time to bake or anything.”

“I love lemons,” Keith says. 

“I’m here most weekends if you want more,” Shiro invites. “O-or I’ll let my parents know to expect you. Come back anytime.”

Keith does.

He leaves lemon bars on the porch on his third visit, a chiffon cake on his fourth. 

On his fifth (limoncello), Shiro invites him to dinner. “My mom wants to meet the guy who makes sweets she actually wants to eat,” he says, smiling like they’re in on a joke together. “Not too sweet.” 

“Sure,” Keith shrugs, totally chill (totally not chill). “After I feed Kosmo.”

“He’s welcome too,” Shiro says. 

Dinner with the Shiroganes goes better than Keith feared. The hot pot is delicious, fragrant mushrooms and fish covered in thin slices of lemon, and the limoncello is a hit. Shiro’s parents seem determined to like Keith. 

After dinner, Shiro walks him out. They meander through the garden, reluctant to part for good. A few lemons still hang heavy on the tree but new blossoms are starting to bud, pale in the low light of dusk. 

Kosmo sniffs around the trunk, giving them an excuse to stop.

“We’re trying to keep it short so the lemons are easy to reach,” Shiro remarks. The tree is chest high on Keith, lower on Shiro. “Took a few seasons, but they really took off this year.”

“They’re really good lemons,” Keith says. “Juicy. Sweet.” 

“You know what else is sweet?” Shiro asks, turning to Keith.

Keith flushes warm. “But not too sweet?”

“Just my kind of sweet,” Shiro says. 

He takes Keith’s hand, and Keith meets him in a kiss in front of the lemon tree, blossoms scattered white like they're reflecting the first stars twinkling in the sky.


	2. through the lab window

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [original thread](https://twitter.com/leftishark_/status/1194846309242396672?s=20)

Keith's lab has big windows looking out to the back loading dock, where a group of school kids is running around herded by a very big very hot very tired yet cheerful looking grad student. 

One kid presses her nose up against the window, then a few more. Keith looks away awkwardly the first time he catches the awed gaze of the first girl, but when he looks again she's still there so he gives a little smile and keeps going about his work, turning valves and setting timers as the kids gather. 

Eventually the hot guy comes over, too. 

He talks to the kids, pointing at Keith and then around the lab, nodding and smiling encouragingly (at the kids or Keith, Keith isn't sure, but he'll take either one). And maybe Keith is conscious of how he moves around the equipment how he stands while he's waiting for the convectron to stabilize, his expression when it does; he wonders if focus and satisfaction show on his face.

When he gets a short break between steps, Keith wanders outside--to talk to the kids, of course, because science outreach is important, was important to his own path, and the kids' enthusiasm is refreshing. Shiro thanks him earnestly as he sweeps the kids towards the next activity and offers to buy him lunch--he gets a small stipend for doing this program, and it would be only fair to share it with Keith for making it so special. 

The only argument they ever have is whether the lab window day or lunch the next day counts as their anniversary. 

They compromise by celebrating at midnight.


	3. apartment au

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> because i had to look for a place this week. [original thread](https://twitter.com/leftishark_/status/1326760014464299012?s=20)

Sheith au where they run into each other at an apartment showing and Shiro recognizes the cool mysterious art kid from high school that he never worked up the courage to talk to, who is even hotter than he remembers. They both laugh at the coincidence and make a bit of small talk, but when the leasing agent comes over Keith slips away.

That’s how it goes, Shiro thinks. But guess who happens to be at another showing the next day.

This time, the surprise is less shock and more delight. Eventually, the conversation turns to commiserating over the price and availability of studios and one bedrooms in the city. Two bedroom apartments are such a better deal, they agree, and when they both show up to the same cramped, overpriced unit that afternoon, Shiro throws out the wild suggestion that they look for a place together.

It’s a terrible idea that miraculously works out—Keith’s worst roommate habit is leaving paint water lying around, and he reminds Shiro when he forgets toast in the toaster (not burnt, just stale). 

Before long, they rearrange their two bedroom apartment into one bedroom and one art studio.


	4. shiro baking au

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i've been baking all week and this popped out after the latest batch of snickerdoodles, plus my usual hcs about shiro and food. the chapter title says au, but this could be canonverse, too—you pick! 
> 
> [original thread](https://twitter.com/leftishark_/status/1340180021466427392?s=20)

Shiro doesn't bake a lot but when he does he _has_ to get it right—and because he doesn't bake a lot, that usually doesn't happen on the first try. His mistakes are nothing as dramatic as burning, just snickerdoodles that don't crack on top or undersweetened pie filling, victim of overzealously cutting down the sugar to make it not _too_ sweet. 

(Because Shiro doesn't really like sugary things himself, but he does like making treats for the people he loves, and he has standards for them, okay.)

He gives out the imperfect batches anyway, since he can't enjoy more than one or two of whatever he's made himself, and Lance has realized over the course of rooming with Shiro that there is in fact such a thing as too many cookies. Hunk, of course, happily provides technical tips on his bakes: a higher temperature to achieve a cracked cookie shell, refrigerating the dough for more chew. Shiro takes note, although when the advice is unsolicited he stubbornly ignores it (and usually regrets his hubris). Pidge scarfs down everything with a crumb-crusted thumbs-up. So does Allura, though with fewer crumbs and verbal rather than gestured approval.

Keith takes every offering thoughtfully, making it a game to guess what's different from last time. He likes sweets; he's just particular about them, and he's honest with his opinion when Shiro asks. Shiro's bakes become tuned to Keith's taste: strong flavors, the more lemony the better, chocolate verging on bitter; crispy edges on the darker side of golden brown; either nuts or dried fruit added but not both.

What Shiro doesn't know is that Keith is listening to Shiro, too. He knows that Shiro likes both deep earthy flavors and bright herby ones to counter sweetness, that he prefers chewy over crispy. Keith's been practicing, and he's sworn the others to secrecy.

So when Shiro goes over to hang out, he's surprised to see flour-sugar-butter-eggs laid out on the counter, and Keith wielding a wooden spoon and a nervous smile. Shiro's been reluctant to bake with other people, too used to working on his own and being solely responsible for both success and failure, but with Keith it feels natural to pass ingredients and measuring spoons back and forth, to laugh off flour smeared on cheeks.

Their first kiss, with the cookies in the oven, tastes a little bit like ginger and molasses and a lot like love.


	5. caught in the rain au

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [original thread](https://twitter.com/leftishark_/status/1343756075586134016?s=20)

Sheith au where Shiro gets caught in a downpour while out for a run, so he takes shelter under the awning of a small bakery—owned by Keith, of course, who insists he come in out of the rain. 

Shiro declines coffee and pastries but takes the warm bread and hot herbal tea Keith offers instead when he explains he doesn’t like sweets. It’s warm and quiet inside, full of pleasant smells and even better company. Shiro stretches and browses the bookshelf in the corner, chatting intermittently with Keith while he waits out the rain. The skies are clear for a good fifteen minutes before he notices. 

(Keith noticed when he came out from the back with more quiche but didn’t bother to point it out.)

Shiro runs off with promises to come back with cash the next day, which Keith waves off as unnecessary. But Shiro comes back every day until he’s tried every savory item the bakery makes. He’s always in running shorts and tank tops, stopping by on his run and jogging the rest of the way back awkwardly clutching a bag or box of food—until finally he shows up in a cable knit sweater and well fitted jeans, pinker in the face than he is mid-run, and invites Keith to a reading by one of the authors on the bakery’s bookshelf.

They go together and linger afterwards, cushioned by the quiet conversation around them. By the time they head back out the door, the bookstore is nearly empty and it’s starting to rain.

“This is familiar,” Shiro says with a laugh as they stand under the awning. 

Keith’s hand brushes his. “Worked out pretty well last time, don’t you think?”

“This time,” Shiro says, leaning down, “is even better.”

Keith meets him halfway.


	6. costume book au

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [original thread](https://twitter.com/leftishark_/status/1359312059196862465) inspired by [this tweet](https://twitter.com/nahhhlina/status/1359242176711041027).

Sheith au where Keith drops a book of kitschy costume patterns on the curb when he’s moving—it was his dad’s, it’s got sentimental value—and Shiro picks it up. He’s been learning how to sew because he needs a hobby, and he ends up making an Instagram (or tiktok or w/e) where he models his projects: Sandwich Man, his first really popular one, a bee costume that gets reposted on every platform... 

Meanwhile, Keith is quietly upset about losing the book, until one day he overhears Hunk and Lance talking about this hot guy in a snail suit. 

Keith and his dad were snails for Halloween when he was 5. His dad made the costumes. From that book. There are pictures in a photo album. 

So he DMs this guy Shiro who, yeah, looks really hot even in a snail/sandwich/bee dress, thinking maybe he could at least know what exactly the book was called, and the whole story comes out. Shiro offers to return it, of course, but Keith says that he’s making better use of it and that he can keep it for a year, and see if he’s still using it then. So Shiro keeps making these dresses, and Keith keeps complimenting them, and they keep talking.

And after a year, Shiro says that he’s ready to give the book back, having filled his closet and then some. Keith comes by his house so he can see some of the clothes in person.

They’re... beautiful isn’t the word, but there’s a genuine delight stitched into the seams that’s better than beauty. The last one on the rack is the snail suit—or Keith thinks it’s the last one, until he pulls out an identical one behind it 

“It’s for you,” Shiro explains, rubbing the back of his neck. “I, ah, didn’t know your size, but it’s not exactly form fitting, so...”

“It’s perfect,” Keith breathes out. “Can I try it on?” 

“I was hoping you’d say that,” Shiro says with a smile, and he points Keith to the bathroom.

When Keith comes out in the snail costume, Shiro is wearing his, too. 

Keith could kiss him, and just barely keeps from blurting it out. They take some pictures instead, posing ridiculously in front of Shiro’s floor length mirror. And Keith, who has never liked cameras, thinks this is even better: laughing with Shiro, leaning against him, discovering that he’s comfortable with him as he rarely is with others. 

“You know, you can borrow the book again whenever you want,” Keith says when he heads out, both of them still in their snail suits. 

“This has been fun, but I think I’d like to try something different next,” Shiro says. Before Keith can be disappointed to lose an excuse to see him, Shiro adds, “I’d love to make something else for you.” 

“Maybe something more... form fitting?” Keith suggests, and he relishes the way Shiro’s cheeks bloom pink.

“Whatever you want,” Shiro promises. 

“What if I want this?” Keith says, catching Shiro’s hand with his own.

“I can do that,” Shiro says. He tugs Keith in. 

Shiro’s smile is beautiful and genuine, and it fits just right against Keith’s.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! <3  
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/leftishark_)


End file.
